Volleyball Weekly Release #4

Sept. 12, 2005

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Seven Horizon League teams were in action this past week, posting a 9-12 record.

Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week

Ambria Springer
UIC, MH, Jr., Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Springer earned All-Tournament team honors as she helped pace UIC to a second-place finish at the Chicagoland Classic by totaling 5.18 kills per game and boasting a .478 hitting percentage. She tallied a career-high 25 kills in a 3-1 win over DePaul, then added 20 kills in a non-conference win over Loyola. Springer currently leads all UIC hitters with a .332 attack percentage.

Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week

Megan Knightly
Butler, L, Sr., Chicago, Ill.
Despite illness, Knightly edged her way into Butler's record book with an match-high 18 dig performance against in-state rival Purdue. The 18 digs helped Knightly crack the Top Ten in Butler career digs with 1,314 (ninth place). Knightly also leads the Horizon League with 5.00 digs per game and has extended her consective double-digit digit dig streak to 36 matches.

Other Top Peformances for the Week of Sept. 5-12

Krystal Hendrix
Butler, OH/MB, Jr., Salt Lake City, Utah
Hendrix led the Bulldogs with nine kills in a loss to in-state rival Purdue. On the season, Hendrix is fourth with a 1.63 kills-per-game average for the Bulldogs.

Nickole Kennedy
Cleveland State, Opp., Sr., Sunbury, Ohio
Kennedy opened the week with a season-high 18 kills in a loss to No. 12 Ohio State, hitting .312 in the process. Later in the week, she paced CSU to a win over Illinois State with 17 kills and three blocks. Kennedy averaged 3.47 kills per game and 0.60 blocks per game on the week.

Sarah Poling
Wright State, OH, Jr., St. Henry, Ohio
Poling helped the Raiders to the team's first back-to-back victories since 2003 with double-doubles in wins over the weekend. She tallied 14 kills and 18 digs against Eastern Illinois and 21 kills and 14 digs as well as two service aces in a five-game win at Kentucky.

Hilary Stromath
Loyola, MB, Sr., Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Stromath pounded out 34 kills and earned all-tournament team honors at the Chicagoland Classic this weekend. She tallied 11 kills in the opener against Northwestern and 13 in a loss to UIC. For the season, Stromatch leads the Ramblers with 73 kills (3.04 per game).

Leanne Felsing
UW-Milwaukee, OH/S, So., Elm Grove, Wis.
Felsing collected her fifth triple-double of the season Friday night against Northern Iowa with a career-high 21 kills, 13 assists and 10 digs. For the week, she averaged 3.42 kpg, 4.25 apg and 2.0 dpg. Felsing was also named to the All-Tournament Team at the Pepsi Panther Invitational.

Jackie Rosen
UW-Green Bay, OH, Sr., West Allis, Wis.
Rosen was named to the All-Tournament team at the Doublewood Inn Classic after leading the Phoenix in kills in each of the team's four matches. She averaged 4.54 kills per game as well as 2.77 digs per game on the weekend. Rosen leads the Horizon League with 4.80 kills per game.

Becky Peters
UW-Milwaukee, L, Fr., Germantown, Wis.
Peters tallied 44 digs in three matches over the weekend at the Pepsi Panther Invitational. She posted a team-high 16 digs in a loss to Alabama on Saturday.

Taylor Gerlach
Wright State, L, Jr., Wheaton, Ill.
Gerlach posted a total of 34 digs on the weekend, including a team-high 21 digs in a win over Kentucky. She also tallied 13 digs in a win over Eastern Illinois.

Sarah Rauen
UW-Green Bay, L, Jr., Stacy, Minn.
Rauen paced the defensive effort for the Phoenix with 4.15 digs per game at the Doublewood Inn Classic. She also added a team-high five service aces ober the weekend.

Alisa Hatcher
Cleveland State, L, Sr., Bellefontaine, Ohio
Hatcher helped push the 12th-ranked Ohio State to five games by matching her career-high with 23 digs in the match last Tuesday. She then posted a combined 31 digs and four aces at the Michigan Pepsi/Nike Invitational where CSU finished 2-1. Hatcher averaged 3.60 digs per game and 0.33 aces per game for the week.

Liz Hrebic
UIC, L, So., Chicago, Ill.
Hrebic posted 33 total digs as UIC finished second at the Chicagoland Classic. She posted 16 digs, one shy of her career-best, in a four-game win over Loyola on Saturday. For the season, Hrebic leads the Flames with 96 total digs.

UIC claims second at Chicagoland Classic, Two named to All-Tournament Team
UIC posted a second-place finish over the weekend at the Chicagoland Classic, hosted by DePaul University. The Flames defeated the host Blue Demons and fellow League member Loyola before falling to eventual tournament champion Northwestern. The win over Loyola marked the first win for the Flames over the Ramblers in the last six meetings. Junior Ambria Springer and sophomore Katarina Nedeljkovic each earned All-Tournament team honors

Raiders win two-in-a-row for first time since 2003
With its wins over Eastern Illinois and Kentucky, Wright State won back-to-back matches for the first time since defeating Youngstown State and Cleveland State at home the weekend of Oct. 10-11, 2003. The Raiders posted a 3-0 win over Eastern Illinois, then outlasted SEC opponent Kentucky 3-2, despite being outhit (.268-.165) and out-blocked (13-7) by the Wildcats. The Raiders look to make it three-in-a-row when they head to the Miami/Best Western Classic in Oxford, Ohio on Friday to take on Northern Colorado.

Clark closing in on school record, CSU continues to out-hit competition
Senior Emily Clark posted 46 digs over the weekend to move within 25 of setting a new school career-record. She has 1,114 digs and trails only Megan Wandersleben, who tallied 1,138 from 1989-1992. The Vikings continue to out-hit their opponents this season, holding a 36-point margin at .247 to .211. CSU has been outhit only twice this season (Toledo and Michigan) and leads the Horizon League in team hitting percentage (.247).

Bulldogs relish rest, time to heal before heading into season's busiest week
Butler's match-free weekend was time well-spent, as the Bulldogs have been battling injuries and illness since the trip to the Air Force Invitational. The time off could not have come at a better time with Butler heading into their busiest week of the season. The Bulldogs will play five matches in a six day span, beginning on Monday, Sept. 12, with a trip to Bradley and concluding with a match at the Cornell Invitation against the host Big Red.

Three Panthers top 100 kill mark; UWM suffers rare losses over weekend.
UWM boasts three 100+ kill hitters after only nine matches this season. Cheryl Hegemann leads the team with 118, while Leann Felsing is one behind at 117 and Rachel Kuebbing adds 114. Despite strong lplay over the weekend from the top three hitters, UW-Milwaukee fell to Northern Iowa and Alabama in the Pepsi Panther Invitational. The two home losses were only the fifth and sixth non-league losses by the Panthers in the last nine years.

Phoenix welcome familiar foe for weekend tournament
UW-Green Bay takes on North Dakota State for the second weekend in a row as the Phoenix welcome the Bison to the Amerihost Inn Classic. The Phoenix defeated NDSU 3-1 last weekend at the Doublewood Inn Classic in Fargo, ND.

In-state foes dominate Loyola in early going; Rambler still looks for first win.
With losses to DePaul, Northwestern and UIC at the Chicagoland Classic this weekend, Loyola fell to 0-4 against opponents from the Land of Lincoln. Last season, the Ramblers went 7-1 against in-state opponents, falling only to Northern Illinois on Sept. 21. The three loses dropped the Ramblers to 0-7 on the season.

After week off, Penguins back in action at Clarion Inn Westgate Rocket Classic
Youngstown State returns from a nearly two-week-long break to battle Farleigh Dickinson on Friday, Sept. 16 at the Westgate Inn Rocket Classic.